Who is this Man?

As I walk in the room and make my way to my seat, in my mind, I’m thinking,

“I thought we were having a guest speaker…?” Due to the absence of another professor, I figured that he had cancelled on us. But, before I knew it the door opened and appeared a man, an old man, in an electric wheelchair. The first thought that came to my mind was that he was either injured or had just had surgery. Turned out he had polio. I’d never met anyone with polio before, so one could guess that I was excited to meet him. So, I pulled out my laptop and figured that I would type my notes as he spoke. I thought that it would be easier to write my blog that way. But, before I could get too excited he yelled,

“PUT THAT LAPTOP AWAY!” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me, he wasn’t looking at me. I was so confused. But, I put my laptop away. Then I grabbed my cell phone and replied to a text. He then said,

“IF I SEE ANYONE WITH A LAPTOP OPEN OR A CELL PHONE OUT, I WILL ASK YOU TO LEAVE THE ROOM…I’m old fashioned!” I thought to myself, this man is psycho. At the same time I asked myself, who is this man?

He was Rift Frounier. I wasn’t sure what he taught. I was still ‘tripping’ off of the fact that he was so mean! I didn’t know what to expect his presentation to be about. I thought it was going to be boring. His first impression made me not want to pay him any attention.

He began his speech by telling us to draw something we had never seen. I did not know what to do. I just started with what looked like some sort of shape with light bulbs going around it. During his entire speech I drew. I don’t think I comprehended most of what he said because I was so busy drawing.

He told us a lot of stories about how he came to be where he is today. He talked about the many times that he changed careers and told us that our generation was going to do the same. I remember hearing the jokes he told, some of them, and I remember him telling us, in so many words that we need to take advantage of our education. That was my favorite part. Everyone needs a reminder of why they are in college, every now-and-then. I think that his demeanor was perfect for the message that he conveyed. We needed to have someone come yell at us. We needed a wake-up call. I know I did. It worked.